Lexus RX450h..rear light cluster

[Charlie1955]

My rear brake light did not work, so I took it to a well renowned auto electrical garage. They tested the fuses and swapped the light clusters around and told me one was not working and that I needed a new one. I don't have any problem with this, but I wondered if anyone else has had the same problem and have been given the same outcome. They have charged me £320 to sort it out.

[iwonder]

If it's the LED type, the wires will be pulled from the unit. Common when sidelights are replaced as the attach to the sidelight bulb holder extension

[sorcerer]

On 3/12/2018 at 6:21 PM, Charlie1955 said:

My rear brake light did not work, so I took it to a well renowned auto electrical garage. They tested the fuses and swapped the light clusters around and told me one was not working 

That sounds very worrying!

Professional auto electricians should not be swapping light clusters around as a method of diagnosis. One leg of a multimeter on the positive wire and the other on an earth would show the presence (or otherwise) and value of a voltage. Also, to just be told "one isn't working" isn't very good either - why isn't it working and can it not be repaired rather than replaced?

Who is this "well renowned auto electrical garage"?

[bobmc]

So did they change the 'faulty' light cluster?

If they didn't then £320 is virtual robbery for basic electrical fault finding

 

[iwonder]

All they would need to do is unplug the connector for the brake light and it give it external power to see if it lights up. A 2 minute test tells you whether your looking at lamp or wiring fault and a visual inspection of the wiring coming out of the lamp which fails. If they didn't replace for that money, that's very poor service.

[Charlie1955]

They replaced the right rear cluster as they said it wasn't working. Thank you for all the feedback. The auto electricians were Pete Wilson in Mansfield Woodhouse. The bill was £60 labour, £200 for the light cluster plus dreaded vat.